Ford Racing gets an ‘EcoBoost’

Ford continues its long tradition in motorsports with the No. 01 Telcel EcoBoost Riley.

Supplied, Ford

The No. 01 Telcel EcoBoost Riley race car features a racing version of the same 3.5-litre, six-cylinder EcoBoost engine found in the 2014 Ford Taurus and other Ford and Lincoln models.

Supplied, Ford

Like other automakers, Ford is utilizing racing to hone and innovate new technologies we'll experience on the road.

Supplied, Ford

The No. 01 Telcel EcoBoost Riley race car

Supplied, Ford

The No. 01 Telcel EcoBoost Riley race car

Supplied, Ford

The No. 01 Telcel EcoBoost Riley race car

Supplied, Ford

The No. 01 Telcel EcoBoost Riley race car

Supplied, Ford

The No. 01 Telcel EcoBoost Riley race car

Supplied, Ford

Automaker continues its long tradition in motorsports with 'EcoBoosted' race car

by
John LeBlanc | May 15, 2014

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CONCORD, North Carolina — To say America’s Ford Motor Co. has been racing cars since it’s been making cars is a bit of a lie.

Before founder Henry Ford started his eponymous company in 1903, he designed, built and successfully raced a 26-horsepower automobile two years earlier. And since that prescient start, the Ford Motor Co. has never stopped racing, claiming to be the only automaker to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Daytona 500, Indianapolis 500, Grand Prix of Monaco, NHRA U.S. Nationals, Baja 1000 and X Games Rallycross.

“From Henry Ford’s first victory in 1901, to the company’s most recent victory at the 12 Hours of Sebring in March, no other car company can match our history in motor racing,” said Edsel B. Ford II — the great grandson of Henry Ford and a member of the Ford Motor Company board of directors — during Ford Racing’s media days leading up to NASCAR’s back-to-back Sprint Cup All-Star and Coco-Cola 600 races here at Charlotte Motor Speedway, May 17 and 25.

“My great grandfather understood how motor racing success could benefit a car company in terms of technical innovation and marketing our vehicles, so I think he would be pleased we race for the same reasons today that he did in 1901,” added Ford.

Ford Racing’s global motorsports research says about 40% of potential new vehicle buyers in the automaker’s major global markets (North America, Europe and Asia) have an interest in motorsports, and the perception by Ford race fans of key vehicle attributes such as “fun to drive”, “good gas mileage”, “high quality”, and “excellent safety”, are more than 50% higher compared to non-race fans. So despite not selling a rear-wheel-drive, V8-engine, two-door coupe version of its Fusion to the public, Ford can utilize suspension of disbelief and compete in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series with its Fusion racecar.

The No. 01 Telcel EcoBoost Riley race car features a racing version of the same 3.5-litre, six-cylinder EcoBoost engine found in the 2014 Ford Taurus and other Ford and Lincoln models.

“Our marketing research consistently shows that NASCAR fans are our best customers,” said Tim Duerr, Ford Racing motorsports marketing manager. “So when you have approximately 75 million people who follow NASCAR, either by going to the track, watching on television or tracking it on their mobile device, it’s a very significant customer base.”

While NASCAR may be the most popular form of motorsports in North America, race fans are also helping Ford as it transitions its production performance cars to its new-age EcoBoost powertrains.

EcoBoost-branded engines use fewer cylinders, but are aided with direct-injection and turbocharging. Among other Ford and Lincoln vehicles, EcoBoost engines are employed in Ford’s high-performance subcompact 2014 Fiesta ST, compact 2014 Focus ST and the forthcoming 2015 Mustang EcoBoost — the first four-cylinder engine in the iconic pony car since the 1986 Mustang SVO.

According to Ford Racing’s research, race fans have a 37% higher familiarity of EcoBoost than non-race fans, and a 28% higher favourable opinion of Ford’s latest engine technology. You could say then, among Ford Racing’s various global programs (whether it’s NASCAR’s Sprint Cup, Nationwide or Camping trucks series, Global RallyCross, Formula Drift, Australian V8 Supercars, World Rally Championship, China Touring Car Championship or venerable Ford Formula) the most relevant racing program for North American new car buyers is arguably its newest entry in the IMSA/TUDOR United SportsCar Championship, which will race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Bowmanville, Ont., July 12 and 13.

When the merger of the American Le Mans Series and Rolex Grand-Am Sports Car Series took place last year to create the new IMSA/TUDOR United SportsCar series, Ford Racing signed Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates to join Michael Shank Racing. The team’s Ford EcoBoost/Riley race cars compete in the Daytona Prototype class, powered by a racing version of the same 3.5-litre, six-cylinder EcoBoost engine found in the 2014 Ford Taurus, F Series trucks and other Ford and Lincoln models.

The new EcoBoost race engine got its first major test in a record speed run at Daytona International Speedway in Florida last October, where driver Colin Braun set a new Daytona closed course speed record of 222.97 mph (358.84 km/h), and also set FIA standing-start 10-mile (210.02 mph/337.9 km/h) and 10-kilometre (202.44 mph/325.79 km/h) records while driving an EcoBoost Riley race car. And race success came quickly, too, with Ford Racing getting its first overall win in the 12 Hours of Sebring since 1969 when drivers Scott Pruett, Marino Franchise and Memo Rojas drove the No. 01 Telcel EcoBoost Riley.

Like other automakers, Ford is utilizing racing to hone and innovate new technologies we’ll experience on the road.

Pruett was also on-hand here to chauffeur media around the high banks of the Charlotte Motor Speedway in his Ford EcoBoost/Riley race car. Recognized as one of the top sports car racers of all time, he is back with the automaker that gave him his start in the mid-1980s when he drove a Mustang to an IMSA GTO Championship in 1986. In his return to Ford, Pruett has showed signs of similar results, having made the podium three times so far this season in four events.

While a few laps riding shotgun alongside Greg Baffle in his Ford Fusion Sprint Cup car was one form of constant g-force violence, Pruett’s Ford EcoBoost/Riley — with its ability to brake and turn more abruptly — was a from of micro-violence.

More remarkable was the experience that came via an engine that Ford says is 70% similar to the production V6, including blocks and heads that come straight from Ford’s F Series assembly lines. But whereas the 2014 Ford Taurus SHO EcoBoost engine makes 365 horsepower and 350 pound-feet of torque, Pruett’s Ford EcoBoost/Riley makes 600 hp and 540 lb.-ft., in a low-slung race car that weighs 874 kilograms less than the 1,970 kg Taurus SHO sedan.

Not banking on its early EcoBoost racing success, Ford Racing also announced this week the opening of its new Ford Technical Support Center here in Concord — a location selected because of its proximity to the NASCAR research and development centre and a majority of race car team headquarters. Ford says the facility will add an “array of tools” to develop future performance vehicles and help increase Ford’s overall success in motorsports.